Too often when writing about what teenagers like, we neglect to talk to the most important group of all: teens. So we decided to put together a State of the Union on the American teenager. To learn what American teenagers in 2016 really like, and what they don't, we polled about 60 of them from across the US. We spoke with teens ages 13 to 19, in middle school, high school, and college. We asked them about their digital lives and habits, the apps they use and the games they play, pop culture, and politics. Their answers offer a glimpse into what it's like being a teenager in 2016. We've drawn out the highlights below, along with some data from other sources, so keep scrolling for our guide to teenagers in 2016.
Who did we talk to?
For our survey on American teenagers, we talked to a group of about 60 teenagers from across the US, of various socioeconomic classes, grades, and ages. We didn't want to focus on one particular geographic area, so we talked to teenagers from across the country, including California, Colorado, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania. Every teen we spoke with owned a smartphone, and most owned or regularly used a variety of devices, like gaming consoles, tablets, and desktop computers.
Teens get their first smartphone when they're 11
On average, the teens we spoke with received smartphones from their parents when they were 11 years old. At their youngest, they received phones when they were 8; at the other end, one teen's parents made her wait until she was 16 before she got a phone.
Teens are shy to talk about how much time they spend on their phones, but it's a lot
We got lots of "too many" and "I'm embarrassed to say" responses, but the numbers we were able to get suggested teens spend about six hours a day on their phones. (This is both in and out of school.)
They're spending lots of time in front of other screens, too
Besides owning smartphones, most teens we talked to spent time in front of television sets and gaming consoles (PlayStation 4 and Wii were popular answers) as well. Some also used desktop computers. On average, they said they spent 11 hours in front of screens every day — answers ranged from two hours to 18 hours, which sounds as if it would be literally every waking moment (and maybe it is).
Teens aren't only spending a ton of time online — they're shopping online too
Clothing has been relatively immune to the rise of e-commerce because people still like to try things on before buying. But when it comes to teenage shoppers, the option of being able to try on clothing before buying is becoming less important, according to a survey conducted by Piper Jaffray in 2015. Only 61% of US teens say they prefer to shop for clothing online from retailers that also operate their own brick-and-mortar stores. That's a significant drop from the 81% of teens last spring who said they preferred to shop at omnichannel fashion (or cross-channel) retailers.
What are teens' favorite apps?
The most popular by a landslide: Snapchat
It's no surprise that teenagers love Snapchat. Here's what they had to say about it: "It's how I communicate with most of my friends and it's fun." — 15-year-old. "Snapchat because it's pretty much just texting, but with pictures of my beautiful face " — 16-year-old. "Snapchat, because it is fun to send your friends what you're doing, and where you are in a fast and easy way. I also like being able to make stories, for all of my friends to see, and I also enjoy seeing stories of my friends on it and see what they're up to." — 17-year-old.
Spotify was almost universally heralded as the best music app
Teenagers almost universally named Spotify as their preferred music-streaming service — and some teenagers said it was the best app on their phone overall: "I use it to share music, to see what my friends are listening to, and to find new music." — 14-year-old.
Instagram was another favourite
Instagram is a standby favorite of teens, who swear by its filters and direct-message feature. Here's what they said: "I use Instagram to message my friends funny pictures I see on Instagram." — 15-year-old. "Snapchat and Instagram, I love sharing photos all of the things I do and places I go. I also like seeing what others are up to." — 15-year-old.
The dark horse: Twitter
You might not expect Twitter to be among teens' favorite apps. After all, the company is having a hard time attracting new users. But a lot of teenagers we talked to really liked the platform. Here what they had to say: "Twitter because I can update everyone all the time quickly and it's not annoying like Facebook." — 17-year-old. Twitter because "you can voice your opinion on anything you want to and you can somewhat interact with celebrities." — 18-year-old
"My favorite app is Twitter because I am the kind of person who needs to get out my thoughts, and Twitter may be like shouting into the void but at least I am heard and often validated by my peers." — 19-year-old.
Absent from the list: Facebook
The teens we talked to said they and their friends were still using Facebook — but it wasn't their favorite app. Here's why: "I use Facebook, but I feel like I can't be myself on it because my parents and my friends' parents are my Facebook friends." — 16-year-old. "It's mostly outdated." — 14-year-old. "Facebook is good for group events and things but it's definitely not my favorite app." — 15-year-old.
We also asked which apps were just flat-out uncool
Google+. "I don't even really know a time where Google+ was a thing." — 16-year-old
Whisper. "People just don't use it anymore." — 17-year-old Vine. "I watch Vine videos, but me and my friends don't have accounts or make our own videos, same with YouTube." — 16-year-old. Most of the teens we talked to wouldn't acknowledge having fake Instagram ("finsta") accounts. For the uninitiated, a finsta is a portmanteau of the words "fake" and "Instagram." You use it for posting embarrassing or less aesthetically pleasing pictures you wouldn't want to share with all of your friends. Eighty percent of the teens we talked to had no idea what a finsta was, and 92% said they didn't have one. "I did have a finsta with a friend, but we don't use it anymore because it got too confusing to know which account you were on, to make sure we were posting on the right one, and not posting on the wrong one by accident," one 16-year-old told us. "A lot of my friends still have them and use them. A finsta is a fake Instagram account people use to post funny pictures they wouldn't normally post for everyone to see. Usually on a finsta you only have your closer friends follow, so you can post embarrassing pictures of yourself without having everyone you've ever talked to see them."
Facebook may be dead to teens, but a surprising number of them are texting their friends through Facebook Messenger
The most common form of messaging among teenagers in our survey was iMessage or SMS messaging (100% of the teens we talked to used one or both of those). But Facebook Messenger was mentioned almost as frequently — 80% of teenagers we spoke with said they used Facebook Messenger as a primary or secondary form of communicating with friends. Less popular were WhatsApp, Kik, and Snapchat text.
Overwhelmingly, three phones are most popular with the teenagers we talked to: the iPhone 5S, the iPhone 6, and the Samsung Galaxy S5
Eighty percent of the teenagers we talked to had one of these three phones.Teenagers are watching both cable and streaming services like Netflix — but there's one clear winner
And that's Netflix. Hulu and Amazon were also listed by a lot of the teens we spoke with, but Netflix had the lion's share. Here's why, in the words of a couple of the teenagers we spoke with: "My family has cable and Netflix and Hulu, but for me all I watch is Netflix. I know my parents will watch the news and sometimes a show on cable, but they also mostly use Netflix or Hulu to watch shows and movies. I use Netflix more then Hulu because there aren't commercials on Netflix. I only use Hulu when I miss an episode of a show because it will be on there fast." — 17-year-old. "Netflix is life." — 16-year-old